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Athletes Break Academic Records at Hilbert

HAMBURG, NY – Four Hilbert College athletic teams were featured in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Team Peak Performers {in photo} List while 80 individual student-athletes were named to the Academic All-Conference team during the National Student-Athlete AMCC Week of celebrations. Hilbert’s athletic department would also like to acknowledge that nineteen new Chi Alpha Sigma athletes will join the nine previously inducted athletes in the New York Theta Chapter. These are record-setting academic honors for the student-athletes at Hilbert College.

The Team Peak Performer Award honors the team in each conference championship sport with the highest collective grade point average at the conclusion of the academic term they compete in, while an Academic All-Conference team member is an individual who has amassed a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or higher through the fall 2012 semester. The National Student-Athlete Honor Society’s Chi Alpha Sigma society admits junior or senior level student-athletes who maintain a 3.4 cumulative grade point average while displaying exemplary moral character.

The women’s soccer team was a repeat winner of the Team Peak Performers, a two-year old AMCC academic initiative. The golf team as well as the men’s and women’s cross country teams gave Hilbert an edge with four of the seven programs pointing back to Hamburg. Fall sports were honored at the conclusion of the fall 2012 semester, while the winter and spring sports winners will be recognized at the conclusion of the spring 2013 academic term.

How did we get here? Thanks to the Athletic Department’s Athlete Academic Monitoring Program (AAMP) which was introduced in January 2011, the Hawk athletes have responded in positive ways. AAMP is designed to help a struggling student-athlete reach his/her full potential in the classroom. Kelly Starchok, the recipient of the NCAA Women and Minority Grant Hilbert College received in June 2011, directs the program. As the Student Service Coordinator, Starchok counsels student-athletes and provides academic services based on their individual needs. Not only are the students in the program benefiting from the additional attention, but the rest of the student-athlete population has placed a greater emphasis on their academic success as well.

Hilbert College, located in suburban Hamburg, N.Y., south of Buffalo, is a private four-year college founded in 1957 in the Catholic Franciscan tradition. With nearly 1,100 students, Hilbert is a dynamic Western New York college that offers career-focused majors, including one of the top criminal justice programs in the region, and more than 50 minors and concentrations. The college’s engaging, student-centered campus community offers numerous leadership, internship, and service learning opportunities from which students launch successful careers while making positive changes in their communities. The Hilbert Blueprint promotes a well-rounded student experience over four years – starting with the Foundations Seminar in the freshman year, followed by Sophomore Service, Junior Symposium, and culminating with the Senior Capstone. Hilbert has expanded its academic offerings with the college’s first graduate programs and new Accelerated Degree Programs geared to adult learners.